The present invention relates to collapsible collating racks. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a collapsible collating rack made of elongated metal elements which have been bent and riveted to form the rack structure. This structure is particularly advantageous insofar as the final rack is extremely light in weight, and when collapsed, takes up a minimum of space.
In the past, although racks made of elongated metal elements have been designed, they have several distinct disadvantages. Typical prior art racks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,996 to Evans and U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,869 to Guhl et al. These prior art devices, generally comprising a plurality of rectangular members which are secured together using a lazy tong configuration, suffer from a number of disabilities. For example, a disadvantage of prior art racks such as those described in the above-referenced patents is the tendency of the partition members to slant as the rack is expanded. Thus, if the rack is expanded to any significant extent, the partition members will be quite slanted, thus making insertion of material into the members somewhat inconvenient and time consuming. While some degree of slant is desirable, it is not desirable for that slant to be dependent on the degree of extension. Another disadvantage of prior art racks is the relatively complicated nature of their structure. Structures such as those described by Evans and Guhl et al illustrate the typically intricate rack structure requiring a relatively large number of elements and a large number of riveting points in order to form the entire structure. These structures suffer from inefficiencies due to the fact that many of the elements perform strictly structural functions, that is to say, they perform solely the function of maintaining the shape of the rack without contributing to the job of supporting the paper sheets. These particular structural inefficiencies contribute to greater costs both in assembly and in providing the raw material to form the rack. Ideally, one would prefer a structure in which all elements perform both structural and supportive functions.
An alternative collapsible collating device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 1,682,667 to Eifel. This structure comprises a lazy tong base to which a plurality of projecting leaves are connected. This structure also suffers from a number of disabilities. For example, the projecting leaves are secured to the lazy tong structure using a rather complicated mechanical arrangement. Furthermore, the sheet guiding elements provided result in yet further complicating the structure.